Thursday, March 1, 2018

The 'Not-So-Critical' Critic: ANNIHILATION



The 'Not-So-Critical' Critic: 
on ANNIHILATION (2018, 115 minutes, R)


The Quick of It -
Some movies are just that, celluloid that flickers onto a silver screen.  Well… it used to.  More modernized these days. 

Damn old-age tangents…

Anyways, some films can have an impact beyond the words and imagery that dance on the silver screen.  ANNIHILATION is one such film for me.  It won’t be for everyone, but for me it was a welcomed visionary tale.  Again, this may not be as mainstream as most would appreciate, but I think ARRIVAL has helped to bridge those less-likely audience members to consider making the trip to the theater.  And, I will say ARRIVAL is a good example of what you will get from ANNIHILATION.


Director and screenplay writer Alex Garland (of EX MACHINA, DREDD, and the riveting 28 DAYS LATER) grabbed onto Jeff VanderMeer’s book by the same name, which won a prestigious Nebula Award, and transitioned something worthy of much deeper thought.  The story centers on Lena, played by Natalie Portman, who is a professor of biology at Johns Hopkins University.  A year has past after her husband, a US Army soldier, has not returned from a clandestine mission.  The beginning does a fine job of establishing her depression and grief from the experience, as well as a tone for sights and sounds you are to experience throughout.  Then, as she is filling her time to forget for the briefest of moments, he walks through the door.  Though, he is not the person she remembers.  Those who understand what the ‘hundred mile stare’ is, this is 10-times worse for him.  Now she only has questions… about him, about herself, and about what happened.

After a whirlwind of events, Lena finds herself looking over the balcony of a secret base at what is termed ‘The Shimmer’.  Her husband is experiencing organ failure and all she can do is think about what is beyond this barrier that caused him to come back so broken… and a few other motivations and conflicts swirled in.  She joins four others, a strong and highly impactful team, to discover the truth.  Unfortunately, I cannot elaborate since so much can be spoiled with just the slightest hint of what they experience.


The best way to give you a gauge is by comparing it to ARRIVAL.  A strong female role surrounded by other very capable actresses.  Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dr. Ventress is the weakest, but fills a needed sense of the psychological significance and impact of the people and the desperate state of the mission.  Also, as a mirror, a way to look inward to discover hidden truths.  The team is rounded out with Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, and Tessa Thompson.  Even though the shelled characters are simple stereotypes, they brought a depth those shallow shells that made you root for their survival on this ‘perceived’ suicide mission. 


As with ARRIVAL, the tone is consistent and emotionally charged on a deeper level.  You are barraged by emotional bouts of depression, loneliness, and hopelessness.  The genius in this is how those scenes of striking beauty and utter horror hit you that much harder.  On the finer level of cinematography, as with ‘The Shimmer’, special shots are made to show distortion in the normal moments.  Through a glass of water.  Off a reflection.  With angles and levels of depth.  A creative way to deliver a visualization of what is happening that the book could not provide.  As the story unfolds, you realize the many layers included in the chosen title, the true motivations behind the characters, and the eventual conclusions derived from the inexplicable events.

ANNILATION will probably not garner the attention of my forced similarity ARRIVAL has received but it has merit, something not to quickly dismiss.  This is one you would want to bring a friend and talk about and explore what you saw, or didn’t see.

Grade: A-

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